UK Box Office 22 - 24 March 2013

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The Croods 3D proved a prehistoric sized hit this weekend opening with a sizeable £5.4m (including £1.9m from previews). The Friday to Sunday total of £3.5m puts it just behind Oz: The Great And Powerful in fourth place in the biggest opening weekends of the year. 44.9% of The Croods’ gross came from 3D presentations.

Another big family film opened in second spot as fantasy epic, Jack The Giant Slayer 3D debuted with £1.6m. Although that’s a disappointing start, the upcoming Easter holidays should provide a boost. Oz: The Great And Powerful 3D made it a trio of family films in the top three as a further £1.3m took its cume to £10.1m.

Offering an alternative to the big family films, US hit Identity Thief came in fourth with £1.3m. That seems to be the average for comedy films so far in 2013, with This Is 40 opening with £1.2m and I Give It A Year opening with £1.4m. Side Effects completed the top 5 with another strong hold, easing just 20% to £609k and a cume of £3.4m.

The only other new entry in the top 10 was Nicolas Cage thriller Stolen, which continued the star’s recent poor run of form, opening with £202k (including £46k from previews). One other notable performer was blockbuster musical Les Misérables crossing the £40m mark and becoming only the 35th film in UK history to do so. A spectacular achievement.

Overall, despite the chilly weather the box office was up 79% from last weekend and up 20% from the same weekend last year, perhaps surprising as that was when The Hunger Games went on nationwide release.

In the US, The Croods also topped the box office, grossing a strong $43.6m. The audience was 57% female, 55% were 25 years of age and up. In second place, Olympus Has Fallen surprised everyone with a healthy $30.4m debut, which is a greater opening than A Good Day to Die Hard ($24.8m). Falling from the top spot, Oz The Great and Powerful still grossed a decent $21.6m and after 17 days has earned $177.1m.  In fourth, The Call fell 48% to $8.9m and now has a cume of $31.1m.  Tina Fey and Paul Rudd comedy, Admission rounded out the Top Five with $6.2m.